''Elaeocarpus holopetalus'', commonly known as black olive berry, mountain blueberry, or mountain quandong, is species of flowering plant in the family Elaeocarpaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a shrub or small tree with regularly toothed, lance-shaped to egg-shaped leaves,

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

s of white flowers and black, oval fruit.

Description

''Elaeocarpus holopetalus'' is a shrub or small tree typically growing to a height of , although there are rare specimens are up to tall and wide at the base. The trunk is straight with relatively smooth dark grey or brown outer bark with some fissures and wrinkles. Young branchlets are densely covered with woolly-brownish or velvety hairs. The leaves are lance-shaped to elliptic, or egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, mostly long and wide on a petiole long. The leaves are mid to dark green above, paler below and the edges have regular teeth. The flowers are pendent and arranged in racemes long with up to seven flowers on softly-hairy, robust

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

long. The flowers have five narrow triangular sepals about and wide, densely hairy on the back. The five petals are white, sometimes flushed with pink, about long and wide, the tips sometimes with shallow lobes. There are between fifteen and twenty

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s. Flowering occurs in November and December and the fruit is an oval, maroon

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

turning blackish and long when mature.

Taxonomy

''Elaeocarpus holopetalus'' was first formally described in 1861 by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

in '' Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae''.

Distribution and habitat

Black olive berry grows in and near the edges of cooler rainforest at altitudes up to from near Dorrigo,

Ebor Ebor is the abbreviation of the Latin '' Eboracum'', the early name of York in Britain. It may also mean: * Ebor, the legal alias of the Archbishops of York * Ebor, Manitoba, a community in Canada * Ebor, New South Wales, a village in Australia ...

and Chaelundi National Park in northern New South Wales to East Gippsland in north-eastern Victoria.

Gallery

Image:Elaeocarpus holopetalus - Leura pool.jpg,

Blue Mountains National Park The Blue Mountains National Park is a protected national park that is located in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The national park is situated approximately west of Sydney, and the park boundary is quite ...

Image:Elaeocarpus holopetalus - Leura tree.JPG, Blue Mountains National Park Image:Blue Mountains Stream with leaves of Elaeocarpus holopetalus & Atherosperma moschatum.jpg, A mountain stream with orange/red

senescent Senescence () or biological aging is the gradual deterioration of functional characteristics in living organisms. The word ''senescence'' can refer to either cellular senescence or to senescence of the whole organism. Organismal senescence invol ...

leaves of ''E. holopetalus'',

southern sassafras ''Atherosperma moschatum'', the southern sassafras or blackheart sassafras, is an evergreen tree native to the cool temperate rainforests of Tasmania, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, and New South Wales in Australia. It is common in the rainfores ...

and

Blue Mountains ash ''Eucalyptus oreades'', commonly known as the Blue Mountains ash, white ash or smooth-barked mountain ash, is a species of medium-sized to tall tree that is native to eastern Australia. It has smooth, powdery whitish bark with rough bark near the ...

. Image:Elaeocarpus holopetalus hemiepiphyte Devils Creek Tantawangalo.jpg, Black olive berry growing as a

hemiepiphyte A hemiepiphyte is a plant that spends part of its life cycle as an epiphyte. The seeds of primary hemiepiphytes germinate in the canopy and initially live epiphytically. They send roots downward, and these roots eventually make contact with t ...

on a

soft tree fern ''Dicksonia antarctica'', the soft tree fern or man fern, is a species of evergreen tree fern native to eastern Australia, ranging from south-east Queensland, coastal New South Wales and Victoria to Tasmania. Anatomy and biology These ferns ...

at Devil's Creek,

South East Forest National Park The South East Forests National Park is a national park located in between the Monaro and South Coast regions of New South Wales, Australia. The national park is situated southwest of Sydney. It features high quality old growth eucalyptus fore ...

Image:Elaeocarpus holopetalus & Atherosperma - Brown Mountain.jpg, ''E. holopetalus'' (left) and southern sassafras (right) near

Nimmitabel Nimmitabel is a small town in the Monaro region in southeast New South Wales, Australia, in the Snowy Monaro Regional Council local government area. At the , Nimmitabel had a population of 320. Etymology Nimmitabel means "the place where man ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q528459 Oxalidales of Australia Trees of Australia holopetalus Flora of New South Wales Flora of Victoria (Australia) Trees of mild maritime climate Plants described in 1861 Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller